The Mad Rat’s Lab

“Oohh! I’m back! Did you miss me, my little babies!?” I say while looking at the Braindead Followers in front of me. They don’t react whatsoever.

Today I’m going to do another Dungeon Invasion, but there’s a few things that I must check before. Basically, spending yesterday’s rewards and preparing for today’s invasion.

“First of all, the most important thing! I’ve been thinking about it all day, and finally found a solution for this epic problem!” Yes, I’m talking about the fact that I need a way to capture enemy units. “I won’t forgive myself if the same happens another time.”

“And the perfect way for me to not forget again about capturing enemy units is… to leave the capturing to another! No, seriously! I can make a new stitched template, and modify the AI so that it captures every unit within range. It’s the perfect plan! What could possibly go wrong by relying on my (for now) most intelligent units!” 

I create a new stitched subtemplate called Braindead Kidnapper. It is also going to have the Intelligent passive trait because I need to give it two new instructions. Then, I open the AI screen and add the ‘follow x unit’ and ‘capture close units’ actions. But I don’t want it to bump into me all the time, I will never make this mistake, so I make it follow the closest allied unit instead of me. Oh, and I also make the stitched unable to enter combat by not connecting any other node to the ‘enter combat’ node. This way, it will survive for more time and capture more units. “Or at least I hope it will help keep it alive.” It’s a shame I can’t add a third action box to the AI to make it follow me in the same way as the others… The stitched only has 2 INT even with the skill that increases the stat. 

With the new subtemplate created, I move one stitched from the Follower to the Kidnapper template. “Now I have finished the changes needed for the units that will follow me, and I now have a sure-fire way to capture units! You’ll see, Ricard! I’ll soon make you eat your own words! Hahaha!” I say while laughing.

“Now to spend yesterday’s rewards! First, I must upgrade the Champion, because I really need another spell that can actually kill enemies.” I open my Champion’s screen and look for the ‘Level up’ button. Since my player level is 1, I can only upgrade units up to level 2. The level cap includes Champions. Player level is shared by all my dungeons, and the XP to raise it can only be obtained through Dungeon Invasions, Dungeon Battles, or by having players invade your dungeon. And you can’t control the last one.

To upgrade a unit to level 2, you need 10 cp. Then the cost increases by 10 cp each level, and 5 cp extra for each previous upgrade. This means 25 cp for level 3, 45 cp for level 4, 70 cp for level 5, etc. And for each level, a unit gains 10% increase to the base stats and 1 skill point.

“Well, let’s start!” I spend 10 cp and upgrade my Champion, Mad Rat, to level 2. “Now I have a skill point to spend! What I'm looking for is a single-target cheap spell, something that I can use to damage and kill enemies. And it would be better if it has a side effect that can help my stitched in one way or another, because they are too weak and slow right now.

I immediately start looking through the active skills. I find a few that are promising but don’t fit what I want, like Fireball. Finally, I find one that fits exactly what I’m looking for.

“Yep! That’s it!” I say. “With this spell I can finally kill something! And it also has a chance to immobilize the enemy, which can help the stitched reach the enemy when the enemy stays at range. And the chance to immobilize is increased to 20% thanks to my Maniac passive!”

“Aren’t you happy now, my ugly babies? You will now have a slight chance to reach the enemies before you die! …or before I do... Because the chase with those farmers would have lasted for all eternity...” I say while grabbing a stitched’s head and looking at its face. Uuugh… Gross! Gotta wash my hands now!

These are my stats and skills after the level up. Without the Champion’s buff, of course. It displays the base stats in parenthesis. It must be because there are passives and other stuff that can increase the unit’s basic stats, the 10% per level must be applied on those too, and this way the player can better see and calculate the differences.

I still have 108 cp left. “I am going to create more stitched with the remaining points. This will leave me with 8 cp. It’s fun that I can create exactly the same amount as the ones I took for the dungeon invasion, so now the dungeon will again have 20 Stitched!” I quickly put them into the Reanimation machine's creation queue. Which forces me to wait for a while as stitched start popping from the machine. “I never thought I would say this in my entire life, but… I am running out of corpses! I must get some more! Only 8 corpses left! Luckily, I’m going to get more in a while.”

The newly created stitched are bumping into things in the laboratory, so I assign them to the corresponding templates. “There are five squads of four stitched each again! Nice! Mommy is gonna leave for a while, ok? Defend the dungeon with your lives, ok, you stupid and ugly monstrous babies?”

 

I open the invasion menu and look for another easy dungeon, setting the player’s level to 1. “What faction am I going to pick today? I don’t want to repeat humans, so maybe elves? It will give me a chance to get some half-brother ‘materials’. Hahaha!” I laugh at my own stupid joke. “Yes, let’s go with elves this time!” I quickly set the faction to the ‘Sylvan’, the name of the elvish faction.

“I can see a lot of dungeons with… how to call it… original names? ‘We are the best’, ‘ElvesRule2’, ‘Adgperetpr’, ‘ComeAndDye’... The last one doesn’t even know how to write properly! And the one before? Isn’t it just some random letters?” I am astounded at how stupid humans can be… Who would ever want to enter those dungeons? I avoided all those dungeons with strange and stupid names and picked one that had a normal name. “Here I come, ‘Willowcreek forest’!”

I soon find myself surrounded by trees. They are huuge! I’ve never seen trees this big before! Well, not in person. I’ve seen secuoyas and similar stuff in photos. Some of these trees are more than 20 meters wide! And I can’t even see where their trunks end when looking up.

“Elves, living in a forest with huge trees. Add to it some bows and hate towards dwarfs, and they check all the typical fantasy tropes.”

Just after saying this, *Swish!* an arrow flies towards me and I take some damage. “Here they are, the bows!” I jump while exclaiming, full of joy. Will there also be dwarfs later on?

*Swish! Swish!* Two more arrows fly towards us. One hits me again and the other hits one of the stitched.

“From the angle, one of the two shooters must be in one of the trees. The other is at ground level.”

I decide to go for the easier one and quickly run towards the direction where the arrow came from. The stitched follow me from behind.

“There you are! I can see you now!” I say. Meanwhile, four more arrows have hit us. One of the stitched has taken more than half HP as damage.

As I get closer, the elf tries to run away. “No, you won’t!” I say at the same time as I cast my new spell: Cold Blast. The spell hits, and the elf is momentarily stopped. A small ice sheet can be seen surrounding the elf’s joints. “The immobilization triggered on the first try, nice!”

Thanks to the immobilization, the stitched reach the elf before it can start running again. And they beat the elf to a pulp in a short time. During this time, I’m trying to find the location of the other archer.

*Swish!* Another arrow hits me. “I’ve got you now!” Thanks to this arrow, I’ve seen where the elf is hiding. He is on top of a tree branch, so the stitched won’t be able to reach it.

I cast another Cold Blast and it hits the elf, at the same time the elf shoots at me. But the difference in stats makes the exchange extremely unbalanced. His health was reduced by almost half while I took an insignificant amount of damage. After two more of those exchanges, the elf falls to the floor, dead.

“Fiuu…!” I exhale, relieved. The combat is finished. “If this proves one thing, it is that tactics and placement trump pure stats. Those are the basic elvish units: elvish Scouts. And in a 2vs6, including me as a Champion, they almost got one stitched and I lost 1/4 of my health. Yes, most of the damage came from myself thanks to the Maniac passive, but still…”

“Well, let’s continue this dungeon invasion!”

 

I encounter two more of such elf pairs. But this time the damage to me and my stitched is less, because I learned my lesson and started using the trees as cover. As I continue to move forward, I finally encounter a ‘real ambush’.

Multiple arrows are launched at the same time towards us. “Ambush!” I shout. Though It doesn’t change how the stitched behave in the slightest. The arrows come from all directions and I can’t effectively use the trees as cover. After the first arrow shower, five elves with daggers rush in our direction. They were hiding behind the trees. I try to move behind the closest tree to assess the situation, but one of the five elves intercepts us and I have no other option than to attack with the staff until it dies. By the time I hide behind the tree, one of the stitched has already been killed by the arrows. “Shit! I can’t get the xp bonus now!” Luckily, it isn’t the Kidnapper one.

“I can’t hold back anymore. Unless I want to risk getting killed by some weak mobs.” I pop my head from behind the tree and see that the four remaining elves with daggers are standing in the middle of the ambush scene. If I can make the stitched engage them, they will keep them busy, and I can go look for the archers meanwhile.

“Ok, let’s go!” I start moving towards the group of four dagger-wielding elves, until the stitched initiate combat, and then I stop. I receive most of the arrows since I’m in front. I then search for the closest archer. It’s only a few meters away, so I immediately cast a Cold Blast and the elf takes a considerable amount of damage. It turns towards me, I’m now his target. Then we exchange two arrows and spells, and the elf is dead.

“One less!” I say. I run in the direction of the second archer. I cast another Cold Blast. This time I’m lucky, and after taking the damage the elf is partially encased in ice. It can’t properly hold into the branch he is standing on, and falls to the ground. “I need to save MP for the rest of the elves.” I say to myself. Then, I run to the immobilized elf and attack it twice with the staff. It is now dead. “Another one!”

Meanwhile, the stitched are fighting the four elves with daggers and being shot by arrows at the same time. I see that two of them are dead and only two stitched remain.  “Shit! I didn’t think about this properly!” I wanted to avoid casting Chain Lightning if possible, but I have no other choice now. “You will regret killing my gross babies!” I shout while casting Chain Lightning. They are the basic elf units, and I have very high stats, so all four elves are left with 1 hp and stunned. I see that the Kidnapper, still alive, starts to capture one of them.

I immediately hide behind a tree because now, the three remaining archers are targeting me. I got their aggro when dealing so much damage with a single skill. The problem is… that the stitched have no way to climb trees nor ranged attacks, and I used almost all my MP. I only have enough to cast three more Cold Blasts. Also, after casting so many spells and receiving so many arrows, I only have 128 HP remaining. It’s about 1/4 of my maximum HP.

“And my MP is recharging slower than before, because my SOU isn’t full. I know that the game uses the Soul and Stamina stats to make the experience more realistic and avoid players going at ‘full force’ all the time… But it really is hurting me right now!”

I pop my face from behind the tree and immediately go back into hiding. *Swish! Swish! Swish!* I see three arrows pass through where an instant before was my head. “Now!” I quickly leave the tree behind and cast a Cold Blast towards one of the archers. I keep running without stopping, and then cast another one towards the same archer. It is encased in ice and falls down, and I take this chance to strike it with the staff and finish it. Two remaining.

I turn around and glare at one of the archers. “It’s your turn next!” With my last remaining MP I cast another Cold Blast. This time I’m really lucky, and the elf is encased in ice again, falling to the ground, and meeting its end by courtesy of my staff.

I wait for my MP to recover while hiding behind a tree again. I do so until I have 54 MP, the amount needed to cast Cold Blast three times: the amount of times needed to make sure the last elf is dead. I don't forget about the MP reduction thanks to my passive.

“Going for the last one!” I run towards the last elf and start an exchange of spells and arrows. The elf dies at the third strike. I didn’t get lucky this time.

“Wow! This was very close! That ambush wasn’t easy.” I say while dropping myself to the ground. I take a look at my status.

“Hah!” I laugh. “I’m pooped. And my status confirms it. I’m going to rest for a while.” There are currently only two stitched alive. The Kidnapper and one of the Followers.

 

I stand up after two minutes of resting. “Ok, I’m at full MP now, and I have about 1/4 of the maximum HP remaining. I can continue as long as I don’t take too many risks.”

I take a look again at my status window and notice that the SOU stat has almost reached 0.

“Hahaha! This was really close! I’m close to dying because of MP overuse!”

SOU and STA are consumed to regenerate EP and MP respectively, and you die if one reaches 0, even if you have HP remaining. That’s why experienced players don’t waste EP or MP when there’s no need.

“I’m not an experienced player yet, but I know this from watching the videos! And because of Ricard drilling the info into my head…” That’s why I didn’t want to use Chain Lightning against single opponents.

After the short monologue, I start moving while being vigilant of my surroundings.

 

I reach a small clearing. There, in the distance, I can see three elves. They wear mage clothes, so I assume they are High Elves, the same unit as I am. And protected by the three mages, I can see the dungeon core.

“So now it’s casters, huh? The only way I can win this is by attacking at melee range. In a spellcasting contest I’m going to lose, because my MP is regenerating very slowly and my HP is very low.”

I move as close as possible towards the closest mage. I move through the forest so that they don’t see us, until the mage enters the attack range of the stitched, and they start moving for the kill. Then I follow from a short distance behind.

The three mages start casting at the same time. Then *Fwoosh!* three large balls of fire are launched at the same time towards the stitched. *Booom!* A fire explosion later, and the stitched are reduced to ashes. This was a triple Fireball spell.  “Rest in pieces, my poor babies!” I was expecting something like this, so I let the stitched move in front as a meat shield.

I pick up my pace and sprint towards the first mage. Then, I attack the elf with my staff until it is dead. The other two mages are casting smaller spells towards me. It seems they don’t have enough mana for another big spell. Going towards the second mage, I cast Cold Blast on the way. It doesn't get encased in ice, but when I reach it, it meets the same fate as its comrade.

When I’m about to reach the last mage, I remember something. “I must capture at least one of them! High Elves have a very good innate passive!” To make sure I stun it when I cast the spell, I first hit the mage twice with the staff and only then cast Chain Lightning. The elf is stunned now, so I start the capturing process.

“Few!” I exhale as I swipe my nonexistent sweat from my furry forehead. “I managed to capture one! Yes! Finally a good ‘body’ that I can use for the creation of a Hybrid!” I celebrate while jumping around, my arms raised towards the sky. By the way, I ended up with only 34 HP.

After a few minutes, I decide it’s enough, and stop fooling around. I reach for the dungeon core and break it.

“What the heck!?” I exclaim. “Where did the butterfly, chameleon and giant ants come from!? I didn’t even see them! …was the Kidnapper working overtime…?”

“There are three types of units you can create: Mobs, the normal units; Bosses, special and stronger that pose a challenge to invaders; and Critters, non-combat units for decorating or adding dynamism to the dungeon.

If you don’t know why your dungeon feels so ‘empty’, it’s probably because you don’t have enough Critters in it, and not because you need more Mobs, or even worse, more Bosses. Believe me, Critters are very cheap, spending a few points to buy them is worth it. And they liven up your dungeon.”

- Seventh point from ‘10 things to do to improve your dungeon’.